Wireless communication networks are well known. Some networks are completely proprietary, while others are subject to one or more standards to allow various vendors to manufacture equipment for a common system. One such standards-based network is the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). UMTS is standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations to make a globally applicable third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 project of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Efforts are currently underway to develop an evolved UMTS standard, which is typically referred to as UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA).
According to Release 8 of the E-UTRA or LTE standard or specification, downlink communications from a base station (referred to as an “enhanced Node-B” or simply “eNB”) to a wireless communication device (referred to as “user equipment” or “UE”) utilize orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In OFDM, orthogonal subcarriers are modulated with a digital stream, which may include data, control information, or other information, so as to form a set of OFDM symbols. The subcarriers may be contiguous or discontiguous and the downlink data modulation may be performed using quadrature phase shift-keying (QPSK), 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), or 64QAM. The OFDM symbols are configured into a downlink subframe for transmission from the base station. Each OFDM symbol has a time duration and is associated with a cyclic prefix (CP). A cyclic prefix is essentially a guard period between successive OFDM symbols in a subframe. According to the E-UTRA specification, a normal cyclic prefix is about five (5) microseconds and an extended cyclic prefix is 16.67 microseconds.
In contrast to the downlink, uplink communications from the UE to the eNB utilize single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) according to the E-UTRA standard. In SC-FDMA, block transmission of QAM data symbols is performed by first discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-spreading (or precoding) followed by subcarrier mapping to a conventional OFDM modulator. The use of DFT precoding allows a moderate cubic metric/peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) leading to reduced cost, size and power consumption of the UE power amplifier. In accordance with SC-FDMA, each subcarrier used for uplink transmission includes information for all the transmitted modulated signals, with the input data stream being spread over them. The data transmission in the uplink is controlled by the eNB, involving transmission of scheduling requests (and scheduling information) sent via downlink control channels. Scheduling grants for uplink transmissions are provided by the eNB on the downlink and include, among other things, a resource allocation (e.g., a resource block size per one millisecond (ms) interval) and an identification of the modulation to be used for the uplink transmissions. With the addition of higher-order modulation and adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), large spectral efficiency is possible by scheduling users with favorable channel conditions.
E-UTRA systems also facilitate the use of multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) antenna systems on the downlink to increase capacity. As is known, MIMO antenna systems are employed at the eNB through use of multiple transmit antennas and at the UE through use of multiple receive antennas. A UE may rely on a pilot or reference symbol (RS) sent from the eNB for channel estimation, subsequent data demodulation, and link quality measurement for reporting. The link quality measurements for feedback may include such spatial parameters as rank indicator, or the number of data streams sent on the same resources; precoding matrix index (PMI); and coding parameters, such as a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) or a channel quality indicator (CQI). For example, if a UE determines that the link can support a rank greater than one, it may report multiple CQI values (e.g., two CQI values when rank=2). Further, the link quality measurements may be reported on a periodic or aperiodic basis, as instructed by an eNB, in one of the supported feedback modes. The reports may include wideband or subband frequency selective information of the parameters. The eNB may use the rank information, the CQI, and other parameters, such as uplink quality information, to serve the UE on the uplink and downlink channels.
As is also known, present-day cellular telephones include global positioning system (GPS) receivers to assist in locating the devices and their owners in the event of an emergency and to comply with E-911 mandates from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Under most circumstances, the phone's GPS receiver can receive signals from the appropriate quantity of GPS satellites and convey that information to the cellular system's infrastructure for determination of the device's location by, for example, a location server coupled to or forming part of the wireless network. However, there are some circumstances under which the GPS receiver is ineffective. For example, when a user and his or her cell phone are located within a building, the GPS receiver may not be able to receive signals from an appropriate quantity of GPS satellites to enable the location server to determine the device's position. Additionally, wireless devices in private systems are not required to meet the FCC E-911 mandates and may not include a GPS receiver. However, circumstances may arise under which determining locations of wireless devices operating in such systems may be necessary.
To compensate for the intermittent ineffectiveness of the GPS system and to provide location-determining capabilities in private systems, many wireless systems utilize signaling and include processes through which a wireless device's location can be estimated. For example, in many systems, base stations regularly transmit positioning reference signals that are received by the wireless devices and used either to determine information based upon which an infrastructure device, such as a location server, can compute (e.g., via triangulation and/or trilateration) the wireless device's location or to determine the location of the wireless device autonomously (i.e., at the wireless device itself). When a location server is intended to compute the wireless device's location, the wireless device may determine time of arrival (TOA) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) information upon receiving the positioning reference signal and communicate the TOA or TDOA to the location server via a serving base station (i.e., a base station providing wireless communication service to the wireless device). The TOA or TDOA information is typically determined based on an internal clock of the wireless device as established by the wireless device's local oscillator in accordance with known techniques.
Contribution R1-090353 to the 3GPP Radio Access Network (RAN) Working Group 1 (3GPP RAN1) provides one approach for developing downlink subframes for use in conveying positioning reference signals to UEs in E-UTRA systems. According to Contribution R1-090353, QPSK symbols containing the positioning reference signal are distributed throughout OFDM symbols that are not allocated to control information such that two resource elements per OFDM symbol carry the positioning reference symbols. FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary downlink subframes 101, 103 transmitted by eNBs serving cells neighboring the cell in which the UE is currently operating. As illustrated, each subframe 101, 103 includes a resource block of twelve subcarriers (sub0 through sub11), each of which is divided into twelve time segments (t0 through t11). Each time segment on a particular subcarrier is a resource element 102, 104, which contains a digitally modulated (e.g., QPSK, 16QAM or 64 QAM) symbol. A set of resource elements 102, 104 spread across all the subcarriers during a particular segment or duration of time forms an OFDM symbol. A set of OFDM symbols (twelve as illustrated in FIG. 1) forms each subframe 101, 103.
In the illustrated subframes 101, 103, the first two OFDM symbols of each subframe 101, 103 include cell-specific reference symbols (denoted “CRS” in the subframes 101, 103) and other control information (denoted as “C” in the subframes 101, 103) and the remaining OFDM symbols contain the positioning reference signal encoded as symbols into two resource elements 102 of each OFDM symbol. The resource elements 102, 104 containing the positioning reference signal are denoted “PRS” in the subframes 101, 103. The eNBs transmitting the subframes 101, 103 are controlled by one or more controllers in an attempt to maintain orthogonality of the arrangement of the positioning reference signals within the non-control portions of the subframes 101, 103 by insuring that the positioning reference signal symbols are multiplexed into non-overlapping resource elements 102, 104. Notwithstanding such intent to maintain orthogonality in this manner, the proposed subframe structure may cause a loss of orthogonality under certain conditions. For example, when using a normal cyclic prefix (CP) for each OFDM symbol in the exemplary subframes 101, 103, an inter-site distance (ISD) of 1.5 kilometers and a channel delay spread of five microseconds can result in a loss of orthogonality between the different eNB transmitters even when they transmit on non-overlapping resource elements 102, 104 as illustrated in FIG. 1. The loss of orthogonality results because the overall delay spread of the downlink channel (i.e., propagation delay plus multipath delay spread) as seen from the UE exceeds the CP length for normal CP (approximately five microseconds) and, therefore, DFT precoding is non-orthogonal. For the case of an extended CP (approximately 16.67 microseconds) deployment an ISD of 4.5 km and a channel delay spread of five microseconds can result in loss of orthogonality of subcarrier transmissions.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale or to include every component of an element. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated alone or relative to other elements, or some and possibly many components of an element may be excluded from the element, to help improve the understanding of the various embodiments of the present invention.